Bittersweet comedy, ‘The Graduate,’ onstage at Sherman Playhouse

Kit Colbourn Wrye, as Mrs Robinson, and Tommy Ovitt, as Benjamin, rehearse a scene for “The Graduate,” onstage at The Sherman Playhouse April 19 through May 11.

Kit Colbourn Wrye, as Mrs Robinson, and Tommy Ovitt, as Benjamin, rehearse a scene for “The Graduate,” onstage at The Sherman Playhouse April 19 through May 11.

Photo: Trish Haldin / Contributed Photo

Photo: Trish Haldin / Contributed Photo

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Kit Colbourn Wrye, as Mrs Robinson, and Tommy Ovitt, as Benjamin, rehearse a scene for “The Graduate,” onstage at The Sherman Playhouse April 19 through May 11.

Kit Colbourn Wrye, as Mrs Robinson, and Tommy Ovitt, as Benjamin, rehearse a scene for “The Graduate,” onstage at The Sherman Playhouse April 19 through May 11.

Photo: Trish Haldin / Contributed Photo

Bittersweet comedy, ‘The Graduate,’ onstage at Sherman Playhouse

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Susan Abrams was a teenager when she first saw the 1967 movie, “The Graduate,” now considered a cult film. Later when she read the book it’s based upon, she liked the story better than the award-winning movie.

She’s been thinking about that story — in all of its forms — quite a lot lately in her role as director of the stage show, which will be presented at The Sherman Playhouse Friday, April 19, through Saturday, May 11.

Abrams spoke about the romantic comedy/drama in an email, including how her views on certain aspects of “The Graduate” have changed since first watching the Academy Award-winning film, which also won multiple Golden Globe awards.

And for those who may be unfamiliar with this tale about a young man and an older woman (played in the movie by Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft), she set the scene.

“It’s late 1960s California and Ben has just graduated from college. He’s anxious, a little depressed and doesn’t want the life he’s expected to pursue. Then his parents’ friend, Mrs. Robinson, makes him an offer he can’t refuse. She’s beautiful and overtly sexy, and Ben begins a relationship with her. Then, he meets her daughter.”

Abrams, who’s a huge fan of Bancroft, said she “thought it was interesting that she was so young — just a few years older than Dustin Hoffman (who was supposed to be half her age)” in the movie.

“I loved the look of the film, I loved the quietness and the music of the film. The pacing just sucked me right in.”

Abrams said when Kathleen Turner played the role of Mrs. Robinson “on the West End and Broadway, it was quite a sensation. But the story is really Benjamin’s story, and his perspective, but Mrs. Robinson is an icon — I think because of Anne Bancroft.”

“The Graduate” was written by Buck Henry, Terry Johnson and Calder Willingham. It’s based on the novel by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College in Massachusetts.

As she prepared to direct this show, Abrams said she began to realize “all the texture and depth and misogyny” she’d missed when first reading the book, “things I just didn’t see as a younger person.”

She said it “makes me want to do all kinds of things (tweak the script), but I also don’t want the show to be six hours long ... Some of it I find infuriating and want to rectify, but it is what it is, and thankfully, it’s not 1967. I wouldn’t want to go back to 1987, let alone 1967.”

So what can the audience expect at this show? “It’s funny, awkward, sweet and sexy,” she said. “There will be skin!”

Abrams has acted in and directed a variety of productions; she directed her first show at The Sherman Playhouse in 2008, but has been involved in the arts for the better part of 40 years. She started in the Midwest doing plays and television commercials. She was a disc jockey, too, at nightclubs in New York City, Chicago and San Juan, among other places.